Tag: women

On Sunday, March 19th from 12-2pm, join Left Coast Writers® Live on FCCFREE RADIO’s popular show, Lilycat on Stuff. Lilycat’s guest on Sunday will be Susanna Solomon. When Susanna Solomon read her first short story about the day nothing happened in West Marin, called “Sheriff’s Calls”, to a packed house at Pints ‘N Prose in Fairfax, California, the house exploded with laughter. Now, onto something, she used the sheriff’s calls entries in the “Point Reyes Light” as inspiration for more. Susanna asks, “How can I run out of material with the intriguing people of West Marin, California as my inspiration?” Her collection of short stories, entitled “Point Reyes Sheriff’s Calls”, has been published December 2013 by HD Media Press. Her success with short story writing came as a complete surprise after over twenty-five years of struggling with writing novels and memoirs.

LEFT COAST WRITERS FERRY PLAZA BOOK PARTY: The Rangity Tango Kids with Author Lorraine Rominger Monday, March 13th, 2017 || 6pm Book Passage || San Francisco 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com You’ll enjoy spending an evening with Lorraine Rominger, so don’t miss the event for her new book. The Rangity Tango Kids is the story of a fifth-generation, German Catholic farm family in 1950s and 1960s California, narrated by the eldest of 17 grandchildren. Born into a loving, hard-working, highly competitive family, and united by a strong faith, every day was an adventure growing up on a bucolic American farm, a way of life that is rapidly disappearing. The land provided her, her siblings and cousins with a sense of place, an upbringing steeped in rituals and traditions that was in stark contrast with the values and preoccupations of the outside world. When the Rangity Tango Kids’ coming-of-age rebellion ran wild, they were often tangled up in the family’s strict morals and values. Regardless of the situation or conflict, the kids were surrounded by a swarm of loving relatives who put their arms around them and stuck together, no matter what. Lorraine Rominger was born and raised on a fifth-generation family farm in rural California, where she worked every summer in the fields until leaving home to attend college. At Winters High School she lettered in four sports, ran AAU track, and at California State University, Sacramento, was a starter on the women’s basketball and field hockey teams as a freshman. She married her college sweetheart, who sadly passed away at a very young age. Lorraine lived in Sacramento, where she worked at a modeling agency as an instructor and runway model, before becoming director of John Casablanca Elite Modeling School in San Francisco. After leaving Elite, Lorraine became an associate producer for Lombardo & Associates, a San Francisco based company that produced and syndicated statewide and nationally televised live specials, including the Miss California and Miss Texas pageants. Moving to the south of France with a girlfriend for a year, she was hired by Cavallo, Ruffalo & Fargnoli, an entertainment management company based in Los Angeles, who managed Prince and other artists, to work as a production coordinator on the film, “Under the Cherry Moon,” filmed on location on the French Rivera. When the film wrapped, Lorraine moved to Los Angeles and worked for CRF for five years before taking a position with Guber-Peters Entertainment at Sony Pictures. Interested in being closer to her family in northern California, Lorraine moved back to San Francisco and went to work for Sports Channel, where she produced a variety of specials, including “The San Francisco Forty Niner Highlight Show.”

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Aleta George, Author of Ina Coolbrith: The Bittersweet Song of California’s First Poet Laureate Monday, March 6th, 2017 || 7pm Book Passage || Corte Madera 51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com It’s Ina Coolbrith’s birth month and also a prelude to National Poetry month, which takes place in April! What better time to join Aleta George in her look at the world of poetics and this important California contributor. Aleta George is the author of the award-winning biography, Ina Coolbrith: The Bittersweet Song of California’s First Poet Laureate. She has written for Smithsonian, High Country News, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She is currently the open space reporter for the Bay Area Monitor, a publication of the League of Women Voters. Ina Coolbrith: The Bittersweet Song of California’s First Poet Laureate is a new biography about a pioneer poet, Oakland’s first public librarian, and the most popular literary ambassador in the early American West. California named Coolbrith its first poet laureate in 1915 during San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and 2015 marks her centennial of being named California’s beloved first lady of poetry and America’s first laureate. George’s deftly told and deeply researched book follows the struggles and triumphs of Coolbrith from her birth in

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Janis Cooke Newman, Author of A Master Plan for Rescue Monday, June 6th, 2016 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com We’re delighted to announce that our June presenter for the Left Coast Writers Literary Salon will be Janis Cooke Newman. Janis has a wealth of literary experience in both fiction and non-fiction. She is the author of A Master Plan for Rescue, a magical novel about the surprising acts of heroism that can be inspired by love. She is also the author of Mary, a historical novel about Mary Todd Lincoln. Mary was chosen by USA Today as the best historical fiction of 2006 and was a finalist for the LA Times First Fiction award. She is also the author of The Russian Word for Snow, a memoir about adopting her son from a Moscow orphanage. Both books are available in paperback. In addition to her books Newman is the founder of the Lit Camp writers conference. Janis Cooke Newman’s second novel, A Master Plan for Rescue was released from Riverhead in July 2015. The SF Chronicle said it “balances

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Isabel Allende, Author of The Japanese Lover and numerous bestselling novels Monday, May 2nd, 2016 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com We are thrilled to invite you to share a Left Coast Writers Literary Salon evening with much loved Chilean author Isabel Allende. Isabel won worldwide acclaim when her bestselling first novel, The House of the Spirits, was published in 1982. In addition to launching her career, the book, which grew out of a farewell letter to her dying grandfather, also established her as a feminist force in Latin America’s male-dominated literary world. She has since written 20 more works, including Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, Stories of Eva Luna, The Infinite Plan, Daughter of Fortune, Portrait in Sepia, a trilogy for young readers (City of Beasts, Kingdom of the Golden Dragon, and Forest of Pygmies), Zorro, Ines of My Soul, Island Beneath the Sea, Maya’s Notebook, Ripper and her latest book, The Japanese Lover. Books of nonfiction include Aphrodite, a humorous collection of recipes and essays, and three memoirs: My Invented Country, Paula (a bestseller that documents Allende’s daughter’s illness and death, as well as her own life), and The Sum of Our Days.

LEFT COAST WRITERS BOOK LAUNCH: Window of Exposure, with author Roccie Hill Saturday, January 9th, 2016 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com Roccie Hill’s new book Window of Exposure is full of excitement and intrigue. When terrorists capture an American CEO in France, former F-16 pilot Kate Cardenas leads the Defense Intelligence Agency team in a covert operation to rescue the businessman before it’s too late. Roccie Hill is the American author of the novel Three Minutes on Love, published in 2008. She received her master’s degree in creative writing from San Francisco State University, where she served as a teaching assistant for Michael Krasny of NPR, and where she regularly had her work appear in the literary quarterly, Transfer. She also received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy from UCLA, and worked with Cesar Chavez in the United Farm Workers union. In 1980 Hill moved to Paris. There, she worked as a creative writing teacher at the Paris Women’s Institute for Continuing Education and also as the marketing manager for the French Statue of Liberty celebrations. She worked directly for Ambassador Francois de Laboulaye, the former

LEFT COAST WRITERS LITERARY SALON: Rita Lakin, The Only Woman in the Room Monday, January 4th, 2016 || 7pm Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera || www.bookpassage.com Writers, if you are thinking about taking your writing from the page to the screen at some point, you might want to take advantage of the opportunity to spend an evening with notable staff writer, producer and show biz professional, Rita Lakin. Rita Lakin was a pioneer, a female script writer in the early 1960s when Hollywood Television was exclusively male. For years, in creative meetings she was literally the only woman in the room. In this breezy but heartfelt remembrance, Lakin exposes us to a long-forgotten time when women were not considered worthy or welcome at the creative table. Widowed with three young children, she talked herself into a secretarial job at Universal Studios in 1962, despite being unable to type or take dictation. But with guts, skill and humor she rose from secretary to free-lancer, to staff writer, to producer, to executive producer and show-runner, meeting hundreds of famous and infamous show biz legends along the way during her long and unexpected career. She introduced many women into the business and was a feminist before she even knew she was a feminist. Unknown to the general public, she reached an audience of millions week after week, year after year.

Left Coast Writers Poetry: Adrienne Amundsen, Author of Reclaiming the Apple: Poems from Afghanistan Kawika’s Ocean Beach Deli 734 La Playa St, San Francisco, CA 94121 Sunday, October 4th from 5pm-7:15pm Join a featured LCW poet at the First Sunday of the Month Happy Hour Poetry series at Kawika’s Ocean Beach Deli. Our featured poet’s reading is followed by an open mic for other poets to share original work, or even just to read favorite poems aloud. Happy Hour starts at 5pm, and after our featured poet reads for 30 minutes, open mic (three minutes per poet) goes until 7:15 pm. Celebrate creativity and poets while supporting a local, community-oriented, and family owned business! Enjoy $1 off your sandwich with the purchase of a glass of wine or bubbly! Up in October is Adrienne Amundsen. Adrienne Amundsen is a psychologist, specializing in trauma, grief, and creativity. Born in Texas, but long ago transplanted tonorthern

LEFT COAST WRITERS FERRY PLAZA BOOK PARTY: Fundraiser for Afghans 4 Tomorrow with Adrienne Amundsen, Author of Reclaiming the Apple Monday, July 13th, 2015 || 6pm Book Passage || San Francisco 1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com Left Coast Writers and friends; lovers of poetry, women’s rights and healing vibes for our planet: Please join us for a little wine and a celebration of the power of poetry at a Fundraiser for Afghans4Tommorow at Book Passage in the Ferry Plaza. Adrienne Admundsen will be reading from her collection of poems about Afghanistan, its troubles and the path to healing. Afghans4Tomorrow, Inc. (“A4T”) , is a registered non-profit, humanitarian organization dedicated to the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan. A4T is also a registered nonprofit with the Afghan Ministry of Economics. Their concentration is in improving the capacity of those they serve in their education, agriculture and health programs to become self sufficient and contribute to the economy of their families and country. Adrienne Amundsen is a psychologist, specializing in trauma, grief, and creativity. Born in Texas, but long ago transplanted to

Sunday, May 31st, 2015 || 9:30-10:45am First Unitarian Universalist Society || San Francisco 1187 Franklin Street at Geary, San Francisco || Marianne Betterly and other contributors to the Widows’ Handbook: Reflections on Grief and Survival will be reading and speaking on May 31st from 9:30-10:45 a.m. at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco. The Widows’ Handbook is the first anthology of poems by contemporary widows, many of whom have written their way out of solitude and despair, distilling their strongest feelings into poetry or memoir. This stirring collection celebrates the strategies widows learn and the resources they muster to deal with people, living space, possessions, social life, and especially themselves, once shock has turned to the realization that nothing will ever be the same. As Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says in her foreword, losing one s partner is a loss